A facile sonochemical assisted synthesis of α-MnMoO4/PANI nanocomposite electrode for supercapacitor applications

•MnMoO4 is prepared by a simple and cost -effective ultrasound assisted synthesis method.•MnMoO4/polyaniline composites are synthesized by in-situ oxidative polymerization.•Composites shows nanorod and sphere-like structures.•Composite exhibits promising supercapacitor activities.

One-dimensional porous α-MnMoO4 nanorods and polyaniline (PANI) wrapped α-MnMoO4 based hybrid (α-MnMoO4/polyaniline as inorganic/organic) nanocomposite electrode materials were prepared by sonochemical and in-situ oxidative polymerization techniques, respectively. The compositional and structural details of α-MnMoO4 phase were confirmed using X-ray diffraction (XRD analysis), confocal Raman spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The formation of nanostructured morphology has been elucidated through field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). The electrochemical properties have been examined using cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge-discharge, cycling stability and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The X-ray diffraction pattern of α-MnMoO4/PANI nanocomposite electrode material showed the feasibility of reduction of α-MnMoO4 crystallinity by the addition of 0.3 ml of aniline monomer wrapped over α-MnMoO4 nanorods. Morphological images of newly prepared bare α-MnMoO4 and α-MnMoO4/PANI nanocomposites formed with the addition of various amounts (0.1 ml, 0.2 ml & 0.3 ml) of aniline monomer exhibit a rod like structure with porous nature and also depict the variation of polyaniline wrapping over α-MnMoO4 nanorods. The α-MnMoO4/PANI nanocomposite material obtained upon addition of 0.3 ml of aniline monomer exhibits a high specific capacitance value of 396 F/g at a scan rate of 5 mV/s and good cyclic stability up to 500 cycles at 100 mV/s. All the experimental results revealed that newly prepared hybrid α-MnMoO4/PANI nanocomposite with the addition of 0.3 ml of aniline monomer acts as a promising electrode material for high performance supercapacitors. An attempt also has been made to explain the enhancement of electrochemical property of α-MnMoO4 through density functional theory calculation and preliminary results are appropriately presented.

Graphical abstractMnMoO4 nanorods and MMPA-3 composite along with corresponding CV curves.Download high-res image (94KB)Download full-size image